Indiana hunters help feed nearly 200,000 hungry Hoosiers last year with deer donations

Sarah Bowman, Indianapolis Star
·9 min read

This story has been updated from a 2021 IndyStar story.

When Debra Treesh’s children moved away, she and her husband didn’t need as much venison, but they didn’t know what to do with the leftovers. That’s when she contacted a local food bank.

“And they went nuts,” said Treesh, who owns a small butcher shop with her husband in northwest Indiana. “They said they don’t get many meat donations and it’s one of the most important things.”

That spawned an idea: Could hunters donate some of the deer they kill to help feed hungry individuals across Indiana? And so it began. What started out as a one-time donation has turned into a passion project.

She officially launched her nonprofit, Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry, in 2011. Treesh’s group now works with nearly 85 meat processors and 500 hunger relief organizations statewide to help the deer meat that hunters provide get to those who need it. All told, they’ve donated enough venison to provide millions of meals.

Amber Zecca, then-Fund Development Director of Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry, processes deer meat at D&D Meat Processing in northeast Indiana. Here hunters can donate legally harvested deer meat to the hungry through partnerships with the state and local organizations.
Amber Zecca, then-Fund Development Director of Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry, processes deer meat at D&D Meat Processing in northeast Indiana. Here hunters can donate legally harvested deer meat to the hungry through partnerships with the state and local organizations.

Her organization isn’t the only one with this mission; it partners with a hunter’s club in southwest Indiana doing the same thing. A program in the state’s Department of Natural Resources also provides grants to these groups and processors to help cover the cost of making the deer edible and fit for donation.

That program just got a bit of a revamp, but is mission has remained. The state announced earlier this month that it was renaming the program, which began in 2008, from the Sportsmen's Benevolence Fund to Indiana Hunt for Hunger.

“We all fall on tough times and someone is there wanting to help,” said Capt. Jet Quillen, who is in the DNR’s law enforcement division and runs the Indiana Hunt for Hunger program that provides the grants. “Whether that’s hunters or a state law enforcement agency, someone is there for them.”

After several years of decline, the program has seen a gradual but significant increase in recent years. In 2020, the DNR program paid for just 364 deer to be processed. Then in 2021, that number jumped to 811 deer and last year, in 2022, the program paid for the processing of 988 deer. A single deer can provide about 200 meals, which means the program helped provide for nearly 200,000 meals in just one year.

DNR hopes they can continue the upward trend this year.

Two million meals of venison

Since Treesh first started her group, she estimates they’ve been able to donate more than 500,000 pounds of venison. Each pound can provide about four meals, she said, meaning they’ve provided nearly two million meals over the last decade.

Their partner group, Hunters for the Hungry out of the Dubois County Sportsmen’s Club, has donated roughly 72,000 pounds of venison. That equates to a quarter million meals, according to Gene Kuntz, who runs the group across four counties in southern Indiana.

Deer meat is processed at D&D Meat Processing in northeast Indiana. Hunters can donate legally harvested deer meat to help feed hungry Hoosiers. These programs had been on the decline with fewer donations, but recent years have seen a big increase with donations reaching nearly 200,000 meals last year.
Deer meat is processed at D&D Meat Processing in northeast Indiana. Hunters can donate legally harvested deer meat to help feed hungry Hoosiers. These programs had been on the decline with fewer donations, but recent years have seen a big increase with donations reaching nearly 200,000 meals last year.

That’s no small thing from either group, Treesh told IndyStar in 2021. Treesh stepped down as executive director of Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry earlier this year, after leading the group for 12 years. She was presented with the Sagamore of the Wabash award, the highest honor which the Governor of Indiana bestows.

“When I look at the numbers, it’s hard to believe that I said two million meals of venison. That’s a lot,” she said. “But also it, unfortunately, doesn’t even scratch the surface.”

In Indiana, nearly 730,000 people are facing hunger and more than a quarter of them are children, according to Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief group. That amounts to one in every nine people in the state being food insecure.

Holiday food: Here's what you can do with your Thanksgiving leftovers and keep food out of the landfill

Across the country, and including here in Indiana, the coronavirus caused millions of Americans to newly experience food insecurity. Projections from Feeding America showed the rate of food insecurity increasing in every single Indiana county in both 2020 and 2021.

“There are a lot of people unemployed and COVID has hurt a lot of folks,” Kuntz said. “They are focused on keeping the lights on” and food becomes an afterthought.

Not only that, but inflation has continued to send the price per pound of ground beef, one of the cheapest meats, as well as other cuts trending upward.

“I can see why people can’t afford to get meat,” Treesh said. “That’s expensive.”

This is D&D Meat Processing in northeast Indiana, a location where hunters can donate and drop off their legally harvested deer meat to be processed. This meat, through partnerships with the state and local organizations, is used to help provide meals to feed hungry Hoosiers.
This is D&D Meat Processing in northeast Indiana, a location where hunters can donate and drop off their legally harvested deer meat to be processed. This meat, through partnerships with the state and local organizations, is used to help provide meals to feed hungry Hoosiers.

There’s another thing that’s come out of the pandemic, Quillen with DNR added: People are spending more time outside.

The agency has seen record use of state properties in recent years and even more hunters and fishers signing up for licenses. That’s an opportunity to help more people, he said.

“There are a lot of new hunters and fishermen," Quillen said, "and we need to educate those new folks and let them know this program is available.'

Donating made easy

The process is simple.

Treesh recommends that deer hunters first check the list of approved processors to know where they can take deer, and then check with that butcher to make sure they have availability to take it.  Only processors and butchers who are food safe-certified with the Board of Animal Health and DNR can be used for this program.

Then all the hunter has to do is go out hunting, legally take a deer, field dress it and then drop it off at the processor.

“I’m a deer hunter myself and a lot of hunters would like to go out and harvest more deer but they can only eat one and then they’re done,” Kuntz said. “But now we have a program where hunters can go out and take another deer or two and donate it to feed the hungry.”

Deer meat is processed at D&D Meat Processing in northeast Indiana. Hunters can donate legally harvested deer meat to help feed hungry Hoosiers. These programs had been on the decline with fewer donations, but recent years have seen a big increase with donations reaching nearly 200,000 meals last year.
Deer meat is processed at D&D Meat Processing in northeast Indiana. Hunters can donate legally harvested deer meat to help feed hungry Hoosiers. These programs had been on the decline with fewer donations, but recent years have seen a big increase with donations reaching nearly 200,000 meals last year.

The butchers process all the deer meat into ground venison, which gets the most out of it and is the most versatile for families. The processor then contacts different food banks and pantries in their area to let them know they have venison available, and that organization will come and pick it up.

They will also reach out to Treesh or Kuntz’s group to cover the cost of the processing.

The cost to process a deer is usually between $100 to $150, though they sometimes give the groups a deal for around $75. The groups will get funds from donations in their communities, but they also can apply for grants from the DNR’s Indiana Hunt for Hunger program. Those grants help pay the processors to cover their costs.

“We’re the law enforcement division of DNR and want to serve our public and the citizens of Indiana, and this is just another way to give back,” Quillen said. “It truly is a partnership between all of us, which is with one goal to donate back to those who need it.”

The need is still there

Still, Quillen said he’s surprised to learn how few people know about this program. That’s why their main goal is to expand it and get the word out. The new name and website is one way they are trying to do that, making it more clear what the program does.

The number of deer donated peaked about seven years ago at just over 1,000 deer, Treesh said, but had been on the decline in the years after.

Given the decline, the groups were had begun implementing different strategies to increase donations — one that Treesh had started is called “give five.” While some hunters might not be able to donate an entire deer, which usually is around 50 pounds of meat, processors will ask if the hunter is willing to donate five pounds when they bring their deer in.

“We can all give five pounds,” Treesh said, “because what’s five pounds?”

Treesh also asked all those who know about the program to tell two other people, even if they aren’t hunters. Those who don’t hunt can still donate to the DNR's Indiana Hunt for Hunger or Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry to help cover the costs for processing. Quillen said he thinks many other hunters and individuals would participate, if only they knew about the program.

Scrub Hub: Do we have wild pigs in Indiana? Are they wreaking havoc like everywhere else?

Kuntz said his group also has started doing a giveaway in recent years to encourage more hunters to donate. With some of the funds donated to Hunters for the Hungry, the group purchases a hunting rifle and then everyone who donates a deer gets an entry into a raffle for the gun.

“I think that’s really helped a lot because people say they can help people and get a chance to win the prize,” Kuntz said.

Kuntz said he tries to donate at least one deer each year, but a few years ago he got a new person involved, too. His then-14-year-old grandson took his first deer and their family didn’t need the meat. Kuntz said he explained the program to him and his grandson immediately said he wanted to “give that to feed people.”

Chris Treesh, a meat processor, prepares to cut up a deer carcass at D&D Meat Processing in northeast Indiana. This is a location where hunters can donate and drop off their legally harvested deer meat to be processed. This meat helps provide meals to feed hungry Hoosiers.
Chris Treesh, a meat processor, prepares to cut up a deer carcass at D&D Meat Processing in northeast Indiana. This is a location where hunters can donate and drop off their legally harvested deer meat to be processed. This meat helps provide meals to feed hungry Hoosiers.

“That made a full circle impression on him that not only can I, as his grandpa, take him out to hunt, but we can donate this deer to help feed the hungry,” Kuntz said. His grandson is hoping to be able to do the same this year, and Kuntz hopes to see more young people get involved with this effort.

The shotgun hunting season in Indiana kicked off last week and DNR said they are looking forward to donations starting to come in.

The DNR also has recently started a new effort where it is encouraging hunters to use non-lead shot for hunting deer and other animals. This helps prevent lead from entering into the ecosystem and the food chain. It also can help protect people who are eating the deer so they are not unintentionally exposed to lead.

If you would like to get involved, you can find more information online for the Hunt for Hunger program at www.in.gov/dnr/law-enforcement/sportsmens-benevolence-fund/. There they also have information about how to contact Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry and the Dubois County Sportsmen's Club.

Call IndyStar reporter Sarah Bowman at 317-444-6129 or email at sarah.bowman@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook: @IndyStarSarah. Connect with IndyStar’s environmental reporters: Join The Scrub on Facebook.

IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana hunters donate nearly 200k meals for hungry Hoosiers last year